G20 repression continues…

September 18, 2010 – Toronto, Mississauga New Credit – G20 defendant and alleged ‘ringleader’ Alex Hundert was arrested by seven Toronto Police and RCMP police officers just outside his father’s home at 10:30 pm on Friday September 17, 2010. Hundert was returning from speaking on a panel at Ryerson University titled “Strengthening Our Resolve: Movement Building and Ongoing Resistance to the G20 Agenda.” Based on Hundert’s participation as an invited panellist at two recent events, the police are alleging that he is in violation of his existing bail condition to not participate in any public demonstration.

According to supporter and No One Is Illegal member Mohan Mishra, “We are outraged at Alex’s re-arrest. He was speaking at a panel discussion in a university classroom alongside professors, which is clearly not a public demonstration. This is yet another attempt to silence Alex, and is a strong indication of the police’s intent to criminalize ideas, dissent, and effective community organizing.”

Hundert is currently facing politically-motivated conspiracy and counselling charges in relation to the Toronto G8/G20 protests. He was pre-emptively arrested at gunpoint in a violent house raid on the morning of June 26th, before the protests began, and is being targeted as a member of the community group AW@L and Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance.

“Though many of our members have been arrested and are facing trumped up charges, our movements will not be silenced. We will continue to organize against the G8 and G20 leaders and their corporate villains that pillage the earth with industrial projects and profit from war,” says Rachel Avery, member of AW@L and a music student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.

On July 28, 2010 the Ontario Provincial Police warned Hundert that media interviews he did with CBC radio, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Media Co op, and Rabble were similarly a violation of the no-demonstration bail condition and threatened to re-jail Hundert. A day later at a press conference, Hundert and his supporters defied this media ban and decried the harassment as a blatant violation of his right to free speech as well as a violation of freedom of the press.

The Crown has already attempted to send Hundert and his partner Leah Henderson back to jail. On August 20, the Crown had appealed Hundert and Henderson’s release from jail in the Ontario Superior Court and was seeking pre-trial incarceration. However on September 13, a Federal Court judge Todd Ducharme dismissed the Crown’s appeal.

In a previous media statement, Hundert has stated “They are targeting me and trying to send me to jail because I am part of communities that are effectively organizing across movements. Whether it is the criminalization of anarchists and community organizers like me, or the daily demonization of Indigenous peoples, poor people and migrant communities, we are living in the midst of an increasingly aggressive and openly racist Harper regime that serves only to protect property and profit, not people. We have to show them that our resolve and our solidarity can be stronger than their intimidation and repression.”

Five other G20 defendants continue to remain behind bars, including Indigenous sovereignty activist Ryan Rainville of the Sackimay Nation. His ongoing incarceration is justified by characterizations of him as a so-called dangerous person, rather than as one who views defending the land and confronting colonialism perpetuated by G20 policies as an inherent right and responsibility. “It is a travesty that Ryan, as an Indigenous man deeply committed to protecting the land, has been targeted by the G20 security apparatus. This is part of the ongoing criminalization of Indigenous people who challenge the dominant assumption that land is to be exploited for profit,” says Indigenous sovereigntist Jen Meunier.